Matthew Pearl
Matthew Pearl

Harvard was also a little bit of a villain in my first book, 'The Dante Club.' I guess there might be a way to make Harvard more of a sympathetic presence, but it's such a powerful institution that it more naturally lends itself toward not necessarily a negative but an obstructionist element in a story.

Matthew Pearl
Matthew Pearl

'The Dante Club' was one of America's most important book clubs, as their Wednesday night meetings ultimately led to our country's first exposure to Dante's poetry on a wide scale.

Coco
Coco

[from trailer]
Clerk: [sneezes] I am terribly allergic.
Miguel: But Dante doesn't have any hair.
Clerk: And I don't have a nose, and yet, here we are.

Clerks
Clerks

Dante Hicks: You know what the real tragedy about all this is? I'm not even supposed to be here today!
Randal Graves: [suddenly outraged] Oh, fuck you! Fuck you, pal! Jesus, there you go again trying to pass the buck. I'm the source of all your misery. Who closed the store to play hockey? Who closed the store to go to a wake? Who tried to win back his ex

girlfriend without even discussing how he felt with his present one? You wanna blame somebody? Blame yourself. "I'm not even supposed to be here today."
[throws stuff at Dante]
Randal Graves: You sound like an asshole! Jesus, nobody twisted your arm to be here today. You're here of your own volition. You like to think the weight of the world rests on your shoulders.

Like this place would fall apart if Dante wasn't here. Jesus, you overcompensate for having what's basically a monkey's job. You push fucking buttons. Anybody can waltz in here and do our jobs. You... You're so obsessed with making it seem so much more epic, so much more important than it really is. Christ, you work in a convenience store, Dante! And badly, I might add! I work in a shitty video

store, badly as well.
[sighs]
Randal Graves: You know, that guy Jay's got it right, man. He has no delusions about what he does. Us... we like to make ourselves seem so much more important than the people that come in here to buy a paper, or, God forbid... cigarettes. We look down on them as if we're so advanced. Well, if we're so fucking advanced, what are we doing

working here?

Clerks
Clerks

Randal Graves: [after Dante finds out the boss is in Vermont] Jesus, that seems to be the late motif in your life - ever backing down.
Dante Hicks: I don't back down.
Randal Graves: You *always* back down! You come in on your day off, you assume responsibility that isn't yours - you buckle like a belt.
Dante

Hicks: You know what the worst part is?
Randal Graves: The fact that I'm right about your buckling?
Dante Hicks: That I'm gonna miss the fucking *game*!
Randal Graves: Because you buckled.
Dante Hicks: Will you shut up with that shit, man. It ain't helping.
Randal

Graves: Aw, don't yell at me, pal.
Dante Hicks: [apologetic] Sorry.
Randal Graves: See? There you go again.

Clerks
Clerks

[Veronica sprays a crowd pelting Dante with cigarettes]
Veronica Loughran: Who's leading this mob?
Woolen Cap Smoker: [coughing] That guy.
Veronica Loughran: Freeze! Let's see some credentials. *Slowly*. You're a Chewley's Gum Representative? And you're stirring up all this anti-smoking sentiment to, what, sell more gum? GET

OUT OF HERE! And you people, don't you have jobs to go to? Get out of here, go commute! You oughta be ashamed of yourselves. Bunch of easily-led automatons. Try thinking for yourselves before you pelt an innocent man with cigarettes!
Woolen Cap Smoker: [approaches the counter] Uhhhh... pack of cigarettes?

Clerks
Clerks

[first lines]
Dante Hicks: [phone rings and Dante falls out of a closet] Hello. What? No, I don't work today. I'm playing hockey at two.

Clerks
Clerks

[a happy and satistifed looking Caitlin exits from the back room and walks toward the front of the store where Dante and Randal are and she looks confused to see Dante there]
Caitlin Bree: How did you get here so fast?
Dante Hicks: I left here like an hour ago.
Caitlin Bree: Do you always talk this weird after you violate a

woman?
[both Dante and Randal look at each other confused]
Randal Graves: Maybe that Asian design major slipped her some opium.
Dante Hicks: Could be.

Inferno
Inferno

Bertrand Zobrist: Everything before you is just... an idea. Now it's real. "Love awakens the soul to act."
Sienna Brooks: That's not fair. Quoting Dante to me. But it's "beauty" not "love."

Inferno
Inferno

[last lines]
Robert Langdon: Well, you might tell someone that the lights on the Dante mask should be turned on because I could barely see it.
Death Mask Guard: I know, I'm sorry, sir, the Dante mask is no longer here. It was stolen.
Robert Langdon: Really? I was just looking at it.
Death Mask Guard:

Excuse me.
[guard leaves to go look into the mask room and starts shouting in Italian bring in many other guards, who also start speaking Italian as they find the Dante mask in place]